Labor says some of its funding pledge would go towards the CSIRO’s RV Investigator, which it says is now spending 120 days a year in the dock in Hobart when it could be at sea doing critical research to support Australia’s marine economy and environment.
Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE

Labor has promised to invest $250m in the CSIRO to reverse some of the Coalition’s funding cuts, and to immediately stop any further job cuts at the organisation, if it wins the election.

It will also commission an independent review of the CSIRO’s management team, and the functions the science agency performs, to ensure it is not “unduly influenced by the political whims of any government” in the future.

Labor’s industry spokesman, Senator Kim Carr, says the $250m would be provided over four years, with some of the money used to restore “core funding” for the institution.

It would also help to fully fund the RV Investigator – the country’s only blue-water research vessel – so it could be used for 300 days of research voyages a year.

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It would also help the CSIRO to manage telescopes at Parkes and Narrabri, which are facing the prospect of closure.

“The Liberals ripped $115m out of CSIRO in the horror 2014 budget,” Carr said on Sunday. “One in five CSIRO scientists lost their jobs as a result.

“Further job cuts are under way right now across the organisation. These will decimate our national research capacity in critical areas like climate science, manufacturing and food security.

“We will act to end the uncertainty and restore funding and confidence to this great Australian institution.”

Carr says the RV Investigator is now spending 120 days a year in the dock in Hobart when it could be at sea doing critical research to support Australia’s marine economy and environment.

Carr says morale at the CSIRO is at an all-time low and the relationship between staff and management has been “shot to pieces.” He wants an independent expert panel to see if the CSIRO’s management structure is “fit for purpose.”

He dismissed suggestions that Marshall’s job would be in danger under a Labor government.

Labor’s $250m in extra funding would be in addition to the $50m it has already committed to CSIRO for climate and reef science to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

The CSIRO staff association says roughly 300 jobs are in danger in the latest round of cuts. “[The CSIRO] has already shed close to 20% of its workforce since June 2013, the vast majority the result of the Coalition government’s decision in 2014 to strip the organisation of $115m in funding,” the union says.

In June 2013, the organisation had 6,477 staff but that number fell to 5,269 by 30 June 2015 – a decrease of 1,208 staff.

The science minister, Christopher Pyne, has refused to intervene in the CSIRO’s job cuts, saying the organisation is an independent agency.